10 Horror Movies Set In Only One Location
2. Maléfique
An underseen French gem, the action of 2002’s Malefique is confined
to a single prison cell containing a quartet of disgruntled inmates for most of
its runtime, and the flick derives its effective tension from their
interactions well before the supernatural threat rears its inevitable ugly head.
Director Eric Valette may have gone on to helm the sanitized J horror remake
One Missed Call, but there’s nothing PG-13 about this violent and psychologically
twisted horror, with its limited location and taciturn cast both influenced by Brad
Anderson’s earlier Session Nine and a clear influence on the more recent Irish
horror drama A Dark Song.
The unbearably tense interplay between the leads carries with it the constant promise of a violent outburst, to the extent that their eventual discovery of a possibly cursed, possibly blessed mystery book is something of a relief solely because it guarantees that an outside force is more likely to tear them apart than the inmates themselves.
However, without spoiling anything, suffice to say the interpersonal tensions between the inmates aren’t helped by this discovery, and the enigmatic book soon proves central to a flick which is part escape thriller, part ghostly horror, and all unbelievably tense.